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LANSING — It’s Nov. 8, 2016, and voters will be making their way to polling precincts to cast ballots for everything from president to U.S. and state representatives to township board members.

What will they find?

If Republicans have their way, there could be longer lines and confusion, say Democrats and many clerks — particularly with measures like this week's vote by the GOP-controlled Legislature to end straight-ticket voting. But most Republican lawmakers said they believe the changes they’re proposing in state election law will ensure the integrity of elections.

“I don’t see this as a partisan move. I just come from a viewpoint that we’re watching people being terrorized overseas, unable to vote. For me personally, I’m fine with standing in line for a half hour or more to exercise that privilege and that right,” said Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel. “We are so privileged to have the opportunity to vote that a line is not the worst thing.”

Democrats and local clerks across the state are angry with the proposed changes, saying that not only will it become harder and less efficient to run elections, the laws will disenfranchise wide swaths of voters, especially in highly populated urban areas.

“It seems very obvious to me that they don’t want to make the process of voting easy. Why would you want to take away options from voters,” said Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey. “It’s ridiculous, and it’s a slap in the face to Detroit in particular.”

The election related bills making their way through the state Legislature, all sponsored by Republicans, include:

The elimination of straight-party-ticket voting, which now allows voters to fill in one box on their ballot to vote for all Republican or all Democratic candidates. The elimination, which 40 states already have done, would require voters to fill in the bubbles on the ballot for all the races, potentially lengthening time in voting booths and lines at polling places. Republicans tried to eliminate straight-ticket voting in 1964 and 2001, but voters repealed the laws both times. This time around, however, lawmakers have attached a $5-million appropriation to the bill, which makes it immune from a referendum to repeal the law by voters. The bill — SB 13 — passed mostly along party lines in both the Senate and the House and is back to the Senate to concur on changes made by the House.

The approval of no-reason absentee voting would allow voters to go to their clerk’s office in person to get an absentee ballot without having to provide one of six reasons to be eligible to vote on a day other than election day. Supporters say the bill — HB 4724 — will help with long lines that will happen with the elimination of straight-ticket voting and have tie-barred the two bills together, meaning that both have to pass in order for the bills to become law. Opponents say the bill still makes it inconvenient for voters, who would have to make a trip to the clerk’s office to apply for and get an AV ballot. The bill has passed the House but faces an uncertain future because Republican leadership in the Senate said they don’t support expanding absentee voting.

Changing the timing of the Oakland County executive race from presidential years, when there is a higher turnout, which generally benefits Democrats, to gubernatorial years. Supporters say the change will align the county executive race with Wayne and Macomb counties, which hold that election in gubernatorial years. But opponents say the change is a thinly veiled attempt to keep the county executive seat in GOP hands in a county that is increasingly voting for Democrats. The bill — SB 110 — has passed the Senate and is awaiting a vote in the full House, possibly next week.

A wide-ranging change to election law would dictate when and how clerks could run elections and give out absentee ballots. The bill — SB 639 — would prohibit clerks from opening up on weekends in the 45 days before an election to hand out or accept absentee ballots. It would also prohibit clerks from operating satellite offices to deal with absentee voting. Just about all municipalities open up at least the Saturday before the election and often other weekends before election day to deal with the crush of absentee voters. In addition, the City of Detroit operates two satellite offices during election years and had 31,000 people use the service in the last presidential election in 2012, Winfrey said. The City of Lansing also opens a satellite office, where election equipment is stored, to get ready for elections and deal with voters who want to get or drop off absentee ballots without having to deal with the inconvenient parking and offices of the Lansing City offices, said Clerk Chris Swope. Supporters say the bill would promote uniformity across the state, but detractors say it’s a direct slap at cities like Detroit and Lansing with large populations of African-American voters and is an attempt to suppress their vote. The bill could be brought up for a hearing in the Senate Elections Committee next week.

Enshrining in state law the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case, which overturned the ban on unlimited corporate and labor organization contributions to political issue campaigns. Supporters say the bill — SB 638 — merely brings state law in line with federal law. But opponents say the Michigan law goes further than the Citizens United ruling and will permit more coordination between super PACs and other campaigns. The bill has passed the Senate and is awaiting action in the House.

The changes are all about promoting a more informed electorate and protecting the integrity of elections, Republicans said during debate on the bills.

“The concern is simply that Election Day itself is something that should be held sacred and essentially we’re opening it up to election week and where does it end? Do we go to two weeks and then to a month,” said Amber McCann, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive. “He’d like to keep our focus on election day when we’re counting our votes.”

McDaniel said she also has concerns with absentee voting and the possibility that fraud could occur if it is expanded. Over the last five years, however, there has been some fraud discovered in petitions for candidates and ballot questions, but less than a handful of actual voter fraud cases that have resulted in criminal charges or prosecutions, said Chris Thomas, the state’s director of elections.

For Democrats, the changes are all about gaining partisan advantages for the upcoming 2016 elections. In Detroit, Winfrey opened the satellite offices after absentee voters were crammed into every floor and the garage at the city’s election office near downtown Detroit in the days leading up to the 2008 election. The voters who cast ballots on election day waited three and four hours in line that year.

“Today we’re confronted with a barrage of anti-democracy legislation that, if passed and signed by the governor, will have negative consequences in the forthcoming presidential election and all elections forthcoming,” Winfrey said at a news conference with more than 75 supporters, including residents, poll workers and representatives of groups including Common Cause and the League of Women Voters.

"I don’t see a purpose for these bills other than a direct attempt to slow down and impede voters exercising their right to vote," Swope said. "This should be called the anti-voter law of 2015."

Mark Brewer, an election law expert and former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said the motivation is clear.

“Clearly, this is nothing but a partisan exercise. Republicans believe (straight-ticket voting) is used by more Democrats so they can gain an advantage by eliminating it,” he said. “But they’re leaving themselves open to a lawsuit because this is a violation of the Voting Rights Act. This is really disenfranchisement at its worst.”